William Leicht
YOUT 350-B01 LUO
Professor Vandegriff
Campus Ministry Strategy Paper
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Ministering to students is one of, if not the hardest job, area of service and/or tasks taken
on by anyone in today’s postmodern culture, especially that of the youth in North America.
Postmodern culture today basically rejects anything to do with contemporaneousness, including
the Church. My time being a Christ follower has been minimal, but my time as a youth leader
has been even less. Even though I have only been in youth ministry for eight months, I have
learned a lot and have experience a lot, that I can start understanding the students, volunteers,
and the church more. I have been able to see how some view ministry, how the students view
ministry, and now I have been able to create my own view or philosophy of youth ministry.
Personal Philosophy of Ministry
Prior to August of 2017, I had no idea of what youth ministry really was about. For the
past three years I have had my own kids attend youth group and I would not hear much from
their experience. Some nights they would tell me that the students just hang out and played
Xbox or they would go to Wendy’s to have Frosties. Part of me was confused as to how is this
leading the students to Christ and understanding Him more, but I had trust in the leaders that they
knew what they were doing. When I became the Youth Ministry Director, I had many plans and
direction in the way I saw the way ministry should be. Eight months into ministry, I can honestly
say most of those plans and wants, have been thrown out the window. We had some shakeups
with leadership in the beginning of the season, we had some issues with a few of my adult
leaders that have made the season of ministry I little difficult to manage. Regardless, God taught
me a simple message about youth ministry and that was that no matter what it is about the
students and building relationships with them. If I had one goal of ministry every week, it would
be that myself and my leaders have invested another minute of relationship building. That
spending quality time just hanging out with the students is so much more important than any
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game or activity. It took me a few months to realize this. I was so infatuated with have structure
to the ministry that I realized that there are too many factors involved to be so worried about
certain things happening at certain times. While structure is important, there needs to be some
wiggle room to allow students to be late, for students or parents that want to talk to you, and for
the occasional flooding of your youth room. Our relationship building needs to include every
student, everywhere. I say this because it frustrates me when Christian adults feel that there is no
need to reach “those kids”, that we should just shepherd our flock that God has already given us.
These thoughts hurt me because four years ago I was that guy with five kids who were probably
“those kids”. I was a lost adult at the age of thirty-three, married with five kids, that were
disrespectful monsters who would say fart or poop and would talk back occasionally. The lessons
that I have been learning not so much from the group but ultimately what I am learning by
reading the Word and that is that regardless of our past, we are all jacked up and that God loves
us regardless. I have to remind myself that Jesus hung out with jacked up people, people who
society looked down upon, and Jesus hung out with them more than those who had their “stuff
together”. As I look at youth ministry and more directly, campus ministry, reaching all students
regardless of their families’ background is one of my top goals. This is a message that I will
preach to my volunteers over and over until they understand. There cannot be an image of
trouble students and/or adults are not welcomed into the church because of their past. Our past
does not define us, our identity is only through Christ who took the penalty of sin for everyone.
Incorporating campus ministry is a very important aspect that needs to be added to any
church program in order to go out to those who are lost. We as a church need to go to where they
are. If the students are only involved in the school systems and in organized sports, then we as
the church need to be there. We must be vulnerable to their environment if we truly seek to be
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heard, seen, and to be known. As I look at a 5 mile radius around my church, I have ten middle
schools and four high schools. That is a lot of students who do not know who Jesus is, who do
not have a secured destiny for their eternal life, and who are losing out on how to live an
abundant life.
Current Youth Ministry
My current youth ministry consists of two separate groups, Jr. and Sr. High. The Jr. High
group meets on Wednesday nights from 6:30-8:00 to mirror our Awana ministry. The Jr. High
group has 8 adult leaders and one student leader. This number of leaders gives us a one to one
ratio of student to leader as our group has about eleven students. I love this because it allows
each leader to pour themselves into one or two students with everything they have.
Unfortunately, this is never the end result. On average we have 3 adults, including myself. From
time to time stuff come up or there are other commitments which I understand completely. For a
few of the adult leaders, selfishness is the reason. The belief that there are too many leaders,
tends to leave these few at home. The lesson being taught on does not agree with some, resulting
those staying at home. Not teaching that week, as we rotate all leaders teaching, tend to leave
some at home. It was an issue I inherited when I took over and have tried to resolve the issue. I
will finally deal with it when our season ends at the end of April and will address it with our
plans going into the summer. Our group time starts off with open gym, students shooting hoops
or bumping the volleyball. Once everyone gets there we have a group game, usually consisting
of dodgeball or scatter ball. After about 20 minutes of organized games, we transition into our
room where we will be for the rest of our time. We sometimes transition with general discussion,
an object lesson, or video. We then go into lesson, then finish up with prayer requests. Our
lesson time is something I did change some time around Thanksgiving. We were doing topical
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studies, in a traditional set up with one leader in the front teaching over everyone else. I felt that
students are in school all day, the last thing they want to do is be lectured for another hour and
thinking outreaches wise, it is hard for new comers to get involved if we are just preaching to
them. We switch up our formation from rows to a circle. The teacher was sitting side by side of
students and leaders. We stopped doing topical and taught right out of scripture. Our first time
was going through the book of Esther in preparation of our retreat. We would read scripture
verse by verse by each student then after a paragraph we would discuss openly about what we
just read. It allowed students and other leaders to voice what they see in scripture and allowed
questions to be asked and answered. This set up allowed open dialogue amongst everyone and it
was much to my surprised a door opened to some students that did not say much. It was a
change that had God written all over it as we went through the book of Esther. When I planned
this, I figured we would knock it out in about four weeks or so. It actually took us ten weeks to
go through the book of Esther because we had great conversation on each chapter every week.
This is something that I am contemplating for the future. My senior pastor feels that going
through books on Wednesday night is a little too much for new comers and would keep kids from
not returning. It worked for that group but need to make sure we have a back up plan if it does
not work for the next group. Our Sr. High group meets on Sundays from 6:00 – 8:00, or until
everyone leaves. This group has about nineteen students with 4-5 adult leaders. The teaching is
done mostly on certain topics. Since September we have been discussing the names of God and
still have about five more to go. The set up is the same except there is more time for teaching
because there are no time restraints due to Awanas. The High schoolers tend to be quieter than
the Jr. highers. The cool thing that I am learning form the High school ministry is that most of
the kids are churched kids and have been there all of there lives and have been with the leaders
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for most of that time in one ministry or another. Relationships are deep with the high school
ministry. Both groups go on a winter retreat up into the northern part of Wisconsin. Both groups
take the summer off from weekly teachings but meet up once a month for games and food, a time
to just hangout and keep in touch. This year I am thinking to keep it going, whether weekly or at a
minimum, bi-weekly.
Both groups of ministries have a good balance of home schooler and public schooled
kids. Our Jr. High group only consists of seventh and eight graders. The sixth graders attend
Awanas. I have been trying to get the sixth graders to be included into the Jr. High ministry to
match their schools. Out of the ten middle schools in my area, half of them have grades fifth
through eighth, while the other half have sixth through eighth. It only makes sense to match
their environments and circle of friends. Our groups are not good at inviting their friends. They all
pretty much like to keep their church life separate from their personal life. It is something we have
discussed and have tried to work with but without success.
Incorporating Campus Ministry
Incorporating some type of campus ministry is a necessity to make an impact for the
Kingdom. Going to where the kids are, is the way Jesus did his ministry, he went to where the
people were, physically and spiritually. I am the only paid staff person, so I would take the lead on
all campus ministry projects. Since my schedule is pretty flexible and my two church groups meet
on Wednesdays and Sundays, I would lean to make any campus group available on other night. I
should not have to make any changes to anything if these steps happen. In my area, I do have a
good amount of schools to try to make myself seen, hear, and to be known. In this area, I have 2
kids that attend the local grade school, but I do not have anyone in the middle schools or high
schools. In the grade school where my kids attend, I am known. I have been able to help
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with the classrooms, attend field trips, attend special events, and also was able to teach and lead
at a VBS that was help at their grade school. Through that VBS, I learned that there were at least
five Christian teachers amongst the Pre-K, Kindergarten, and First grade. It would be easier for
me to start something in that school than it would for me in others. The school I would try first
would be either Stanton Middle School or Grant High School. Both schools are .6 miles away
from my home and about .5 miles away from my church. Grant High school has a math teacher
that is also an elder in the church. While there is no religious presence inside of the school, they
do have a group that meets at the flagpole every morning before school. I would first start off by
asking where I can serve. Whether that would be helping at lunch time, cleaning, or any
volunteer job that would get me inside the school and be seen. Once I get accustom to the
school, I would start looking and asking questions to seek out other followers and seek interest in
groups. Since my love is in sports, I would try to start a sport related group or camp with the
ability to share the gospel for a few minutes in the middle of group time. I would like to have at
least a 1:3 ration, leader to students. If I am able to have more, great, but that would a
comfortable number to have in the beginning. From there I would like to get into the high school
and maybe partner up with a FCA chapter or CRU group that could help get something going
during the lunch periods. Again, I would look at opportunities to serve, build relationships, and
then see where that leads. In a setting like this, I would see a 1:5 ratio, 1 leader to 5 students, as
it will be a meeting time during their lunch period, I do not want to trouble the school in having
too many people there. From there I would look at seeing how the group of students can then
serve the schools. Concession stands, book fairs, freshman orientation, sporting events, or
wherever I see there is a need for service. The object in all these initial steps is to be seen and
heard, then eventually to be understood. The being seen and heard steps, like any ministry, can
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happen fairly quickly, but the understanding part, will take some time. That time is an
investment by both the student and leader that will need to be built.
An important aspect of any campus ministry is that I wish for it to not be a side ministry
to my church’s ongoing ministries. I would like to keep them separate. I want to meet the kids
in their environments and have them be comfortable. If relationships are built, the church’s
ministries can be additional time for spiritual growth. I do not wan to make campus ministry be
a “numbers getting scheme” for the church’s ministry, but just a ministry to seek the lost students
and an opportunity to share the gospel.
Three Year Plan
Year 1
August will be spent getting my name to the right people. I will focus on Stanton Middle School,
Gavin South, Big Hollow Middle School and Grant High school. I would seek out PTA and Booster
clubs to see if I can be of any service.
September – December will be spent just serving and seeking out people. I want to be seen and
my name to be heard. I will see if I could help in concessions for the sports season. I will also see
if I can help in the cafeteria on certain days of the week.
January- March will be continue in efforts but hopefully building some momentum with
relationships. Start on a sports camp that will happen early June.
April – June will be contacting those officers who were newly elected and to have sit downs with
all leaders, individually to see what the follow school year looks like. I will also see if we could do
a mobile VBS at any of those schools. I would like to start planning a camp trip to our local state
park that would coincide with my church’s ministry in case I do not have the staff and/or
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students to support it. I would also look at a backpack ministry for the Lotus Elementary that we
could give out at their open house.
Year 2
July – August I will be setting up meetings from previous schools to be at open houses. I would
like to have a table of information at each of those school from the previous year. Ideally myself
would man those tables, but if not, I will appoint the office staff from my church. I would also start
to reach new school to get my name being mention and face seen. Those schools will be Round
Lake Middle, Magee Middle, Palombi Middle, and Grayslake Middle. These school are all located
near or by each other.
September – December will be focused on current groups from previous year that will have
momentum and then building new relationships with the new school from this year. I will also
start looking at who I could train up to oversee the first -year school when I start looking at
building groups in the second-year schools. I will continue to look at concession stand serving
opportunities. I would utilize my already established groups as well.
January – March I would like to establish another sports camp at one of the schools in year two.
Also need to organize last years sports camp. Need to plan out egg hunt with the Grayslake Park
District and use our groups as help
April – June I will need to contact those officers that were newly elected. I will need to have sit
down with year 2 and year 1 leaders to see what the upcoming school year will look like. I would
like to establish another VBS at Magee Middle School and get the previous years VBS organized as
well. Would like to organize a summer group at the Round Lake Field house for the summer that
would meet Monday through Friday form 9:30-11:30am.
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Year 3
July – August – have newly trained leader start having conversation with year 1 schools for open
houses and myself start having conversation with year 2 schools for open houses. Establish
communication from year 1 groups and then send out info for year 2 groups. Schools I would
like to get my name and face in this year would be McHenry Middle, Parkland Middle, McHenry
High, and Johnsburg High.
September – December will be focused on current groups from previous year 2 that will have
momentum and then building new relationships with the new schools from this year. I will also
start looking at who I could train up to oversee the second-year schools when I start looking at
building groups in the second-year schools. I will continue to look at concession stand serving
opportunities. I would utilize my already established groups as well.
January – March I would like to establish another sports camp at one of the schools in year three.
Also need to organize last 2 years sport camps. Need to plan out egg hunt with the McHenry
Park District and use our groups as help.
April – June I will need to contact those officers that were newly elected. I will need to have sit
down with year 3 and year 2 leaders to see what the upcoming school year will look like. I will
have my leader seek out year 1 schools and set up the following school year. I would like to
establish another VBS at Parkland Middle School and get the previous years VBS organized as
well.
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